Bill Hand: Rhode Island woman carried the flag — or did she?

By Bill Hand, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 05:23 PM.

We had interesting characters coming to our town from Rhode Island back in 1862. One was Ambrose Burnside, he of the infamous mutton chops, an inventor and general who masterminded the capture of New Bern.

Then there was Kady Brownell, a heroine of the 5th Rhode Island Regiment, who saved the boys from disaster during the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862. Or maybe she didn’t. Historians aren’t really sure whether she was indeed a hero or self-promoter who pretty much made things up.

Anyway, here’s what we know. Or maybe what we don’t know.

Kady was a millworker who’d met a married Robert Brownell amidst the industrial machinery. They fell in love, he divorced his wife, and the two married, Kady would later proclaim, shortly before he marched off to join the 1st Rhode Island in 1861.

The regiment camped in Washington, where Kady followed. She was made, she would later state, an honorary color-bearer to the regiment. She would be wounded carrying the flag at the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run) in July. If this is true, however, the regiment was careful to keep a secret of it because there is no official record of her doing such.

Color-bearer was indeed a post of honor, but it was also about the deadliest position in the regiment. A color-bearer stood out rather severely in a battle — that was the whole point, so that the regiment would be able to keep track of where they should be. But this also made the guy with the flag an inviting target for the enemy. Color-bearers were just about guaranteed to get shot early on.

The 1st’s term of service came up and Robert, apparently full of patriotism, signed up again, this time for the Fifth. Kady followed along and, she said, became the honorary color guard yet again. If her words are true, then she was actually in the Battle of New Bern. This would have been unique. While we know there were women who fought, unknown to their fellows because they were disguised as men, Kady was known by her regiment to be a woman.

We had interesting characters coming to our town from Rhode Island back in 1862. One was Ambrose Burnside, he of the infamous mutton chops, an inventor and general who masterminded the capture of New Bern.

Then there was Kady Brownell, a heroine of the 5th Rhode Island Regiment, who saved the boys from disaster during the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862. Or maybe she didn’t. Historians aren’t really sure whether she was indeed a hero or self-promoter who pretty much made things up.

Anyway, here’s what we know. Or maybe what we don’t know.

Kady was a millworker who’d met a married Robert Brownell amidst the industrial machinery. They fell in love, he divorced his wife, and the two married, Kady would later proclaim, shortly before he marched off to join the 1st Rhode Island in 1861.

The regiment camped in Washington, where Kady followed. She was made, she would later state, an honorary color-bearer to the regiment. She would be wounded carrying the flag at the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run) in July. If this is true, however, the regiment was careful to keep a secret of it because there is no official record of her doing such.

Color-bearer was indeed a post of honor, but it was also about the deadliest position in the regiment. A color-bearer stood out rather severely in a battle — that was the whole point, so that the regiment would be able to keep track of where they should be. But this also made the guy with the flag an inviting target for the enemy. Color-bearers were just about guaranteed to get shot early on.

The 1st’s term of service came up and Robert, apparently full of patriotism, signed up again, this time for the Fifth. Kady followed along and, she said, became the honorary color guard yet again. If her words are true, then she was actually in the Battle of New Bern. This would have been unique. While we know there were women who fought, unknown to their fellows because they were disguised as men, Kady was known by her regiment to be a woman.

According to her story, the battlefield was covered in smoke and fog, and Union forces were approaching the 5th’s position, unaware that they were on the same side. She grabbed her flag and ran forward, frantically waving it, alerting the others not to fire on them, thus saving the regiment from some serious friendly fire.

In 1882, a captain in the regiment seemed to back up her story — sort of — by stating that she was “Conspicuous for bravery in carrying a flag at the head of the battalion” and stopping her own regiment from firing on a New Hampshire force. Then, later on, he changed his story and said that she had begged him to let her carry the flag, but that he sent her protesting to the back of the line.

So did she or didn’t she? She would spend her life telling of her glorious experiences, but we know that some facts are false. For instance, there is her claim to have married her husband in 1861, even though the official marriage records place it in 1863, after Robert was discharged. There are other “facts” of her life that no evidence can be found to support.

In any case, she played her case well enough to convince the government to give her a military pension, and she proudly marched in Memorial Day parades until her death. If Uncle Sam believed her, there must be at least a strong seed of truth to her tale.

The information for this column was drawn from the website “North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial.”

Final note: I made a slight error last week in burying Sarah Blalock in 1901. That would have been a very uncomfortable thing for her, as she didn’t die until 1903.